Our first win at Old Trafford since 2006 gives us an FA Cup semi-final against either Bradford or Reading.
Here’s how we thought the players rated.
Our first win at Old Trafford since 2006 gives us an FA Cup semi-final against either Bradford or Reading.
Here’s how we thought the players rated.
Amazing! So good to see everyone buzzing. WEMBLEYYYYYYYY!
give welbz a 10. he wasn’t great by any means. but he scored the winner at old trafford and celebrated with joy.
10/10 just for that celebration. turns to his teammates and goes: “AM I ARSENAL? FUCK YEAH IM A GUNNER”
Gotta say one thing though.. Welbeck is pretty ace and confident when 1v1 against a keeper.. We saw something similar in his hat-trick perf. in the CL…
The guy does bring a different talent to the CF position..
once i again..i really hope he comes good at arsenal. there is something decent about him. he sure doesnt have the nastiness of the traditional ace striker. a sort of anti-thesis for what a real striker should be.
The thing about Welbeck’s winner is Giroud would NOT have scored it. He wouldn’t have the speed to beat De Gea to the ball. Speed kills – and Welbeck killed United!
Big up to Wenger’s substitutions. Great to sub Bellerin immediately after escaping a red. Any foul after that and he would’ve been off. And great call bringing on Ramsey for The Ox and not Walcott, switching the shape to a 4-4-1-1.
Wenger duzzint do tacticks!!
Including the fans who get an 11/10. Our away support is a different class.
Crank it up to 12 when most of them stayed long after the whistle had gone to carry on singing, despite a long journey home. Bit annoying to read about it in the papers and say that our support found it’s voice after always being quiet, our travelling fans are always rambunctious.
I bet that overnight “expert pundit” Scholes wishes he kept his mouth shut about Ozil now…
People just simply do not see what he does on the pitch, even these ex pros. His constant movement to find space and pockets for others is obviously something the English game is confused by.
That goes for Gary Neville as well. The way he harps on about Ozil one would think that Mesut has done his wife or something.
Naturally Mr. get ‘stuck in’ isn’t going to recognize that quality..
Great play by all players. Coq is really impressive and the super trio ( alexis,cazorla and mesut) are all putting in an extra shift! great stuff from all. Glorious draw as well. All in all, 10/10 to all the players and the staff !!
Come on you gunners!!!
And to think the way the team is starting to click we’re not even missing Debuchy, Arteta or Wilshere – shows the real depth we have now.
We do miss Debuchy, but Bellerin has done a pretty great job considering how raw he is.
There was some real intelligence to Coquelin’s play.
He often let Fellaini receive the ball in the air but then harried him as soon as the ball dropped to the ground where time and again, it led to pressure and Man U losing possession.
There have been reports this week that Schneiderlin has all but been open about his wish to join Arsenal this summmer. Who knows what will happen, but if that came to pass, those two in midfield would be a force to be reckoned with.
Spot on.
I came.
I saw and the gunners conquered
10/10 for arsene tonight. Spot on tactically and brilliant decision making.
I’m gonna say bringing Coquelin back and playing him was a master-stroke. He beat Fellaini in that midfield battle, intercepted most of their attacks and played the ball well. I’m so fucking happy.
I disagree. Coquelin deserves the credit, not Wenger. We needed him because our midfield was decimated with injuries and I think a lot of us, if we’re honest with ourselves, feared the worst. Instead, he has surprised us all. Many of us probably thought that this would be Wilshere’s true breakout season. Out of nowhere Coquelin has taken the bull by the horns and made himself part of the spine of the team. He has been a revelation and that is all down to him. I take my hat off to him.
thanks for that! the manager made a great decision subbing Bellerin off at that time.
Ref was fantastic tonight and I’m glad people are commenting on that. We are so quick to jump on refs that we should pay respect when they get almost all critical decisions right. Fellani had at least 10 fouls before his yellow, but great job otherwise.
Oliver was great. Frankly, I think he might have second-guessed himself a little after he gave Bellerin a yellow on four minutes. Later in the game, a booking for sure, but minutes in he could have given a warning and I think he might have realized he was a little full of adrenalin like the players. However, apart from allowing Fellaini a little too much leeway at first, he was on the money. Second half, fantastic. To make correct calls in the cauldron that is Old Trafford with the likes of Rooney in his face took some nerve. Also glad… Read more »
Don’t forget he also didn’t give us a stonewall penalty in the first half…but can’t be picky as he showed a real pair of bollocks!
That was nowhere near a penalty, a slight touch with your hand does not equal a foul.
I was shaking my head when he brought on Ramsey instead of Walcott, but boy did he show why he is a football manager and I am not…
Le Boss has still got it. Despite a few setbacks here and there the team is improving and can really achieve something together in the coming years. Great to see Arsene correcting the vital flaws in our game. We just need to be focused and consistent now.
10/10 for selection. Giroud is a better player all round, but wouldn’t have taken the chance that Welbeck did, top decision from Wenger
I wonder if part of that was down to Wenger noticing the stats that United pass back to their keeper more than any other team in the league
If that was the case then it’s that level of thinking that separates him from esteemed, decorated football manager players like myself
Tbf you can’t get “passes back to keeper” stats in FM #justsayin
Our Coq was as hard as a rock tonight, and battered that giant fouling cunt by getting really tight on him.
And then he had an orgasm and semen got everywhere.
Am I doing this right?
Hopefully this starts them on a nice little run of shite form and they finish in the Europa slots with Sp*rs.
This United team, deserves to be playing football on Thursday nights on ITV4 against opposition nobody can pronounce in countries most people couldn’t locate on a map if their life depended on it.
What a wonderful win. Still buzzing. I do feel for Walcott though. It seems he can hardly get on the pitch at the moment. Chamberlain was injured, came back and is still getting more playing time than Walcott. Wonder what’s going on with him behind the scenes.
Oliver gave the best refereeing performance I have seen for a while. Stood strong against a team that sort to cheat at every opportunity as soon as they were losing.
Yeah resect where it’s due. I actually mentally went through a few other referees and couldn’t think of any others that wouldn’t have caved in.
When Janjauvezuzaezuez went down in the box i thought “fuck here we go again.” After all those horrible calls weve gotten against Man U, and after years of seeing Ref’s scared to make calls against Ferguson, I was sure he was calling a penalty. Yet they FINALLY got it right! Who wouldve thought a correct call would feel so overwhelmingly joyous. (taking it in)… Also nice to finally see the other team self destruct and us putting the game away for once. Man Take that Man U…U fuckers!
@duder, that’s funny, “take that Man U you fuckers” is exactly what I’ve been texting everybody tonight 🙂
adding “fuckers” on the end of most any statement about people makes it better.
Spot on mate, the ref was excellent, with all the negative press the refs have had and a lot of it deserved, but he stood head and shoulders and didn’t let the occasion get to him, the best I have seen from a ref for a long time and so young as well, he deserves all the applause he will get and I hope the media cotton on to it and praise him.
Ain’t that typical of ManUre? They have been at it for years after all and they are used to getting all sorts of advantages by pressuring refs when Rednose was at the helm, breathing down on refs and getting the crowd and players worked up, turning defeats to draws and draws to wins
Unlike the old loyalists, it seems like they can’t buy the new refs anymore.. Truly the end of an era..
Got to praise the ref today, he didn’t let man ure give some fouls but instead booked them. That would teach these man ure brats! Still concerned about Alexis. After Ozil came in, he has gone a bit quiet ever since… Loved that Welbz celebrated against his old shit club aswell, nice! COYG!!
the dive by Jaunsaz was so ridiculous. Anyone have a video of it?
http://youtu.be/2mekcWLKr6E
I feel januzaj is kid with great potential. Its just sad to see a young talent like him already so cynical just because of the scum that he’s being coached by
Yes, he’s a cunt for diving, but to me it looked like he was very dissappointed and knew he did something stupid the minute he went down. For me that look of shame on his face gives hope that he can grow up to not be a cunt of the highest Young order. Like many others have said before me; Fantastic refereeing from Oliver to hand out a yellow when the stakes were high like that. If it had actually been a penalty, and he’d gotten that wrong a lot of people would be talking about him being shite instead… Read more »
Januzaj in his career – 4 goals, 5 yellow cards for diving!
Apparently Tom Daley is studying footage from the game for tips.
If I weren’t so impressed with Oliver’s handling of their bullshit, I’d extend a sportsmanlike bonus rating of 9/10 for de Gea, He is truly excellent.
Though we are excellenter. UTA!!!!
De Gea is class. I was thinking during the game who, if anyone, would you take from this lot. De Gea was the only player on their team that would improve us. Their D is a mess, they stack the midfield yet don’t really dominate it, and their best striker (Rooney) is being played in midfield. What exactly is this LVG philosophy? His team tried to play like West Ham/Stoke for most of that match.
To be fair to LVG the stuff he had on the bench wasn’t exactly intimidating. Every defender they’ve brought in since Vidic has been average, and their offencive players needed to be withheld since the two forced substitutions at halftime. His players should take the blame tonight IMO, not the manager himself.
I couldn’t disagree more. Van Gaal may have inherited an unbalanced team, but he’s actively made it worse. Of his 6 or so acquisitions only Di Maria has had any sort of impact. Buying three highly regarded midfielders (Maria, Blind, Herrera) in the summer and then playing Fellaini tells you all you need to know, as does the number of times the latter has played striker while the best paid striker in the country sits on the bench. I can’t wait for him to continue to ruin United in the summer and then run out of arrogant excuses next spring.… Read more »
Trouble is that no new manager wants his “marquee signings” to be defenders.
Thus taking over a team with a third-rate defensive lineup, notably put in place by a Glaswegian alcoholic who must not be criticised, is something of a poisoned chalice however you look at it.
Also worth remembering that one of their more effective players is Fellaini, who was brought in by, er, Moyes. As Moyes was a “failure”, presumably the ManUre faithful are busily scanning the Thesaurus for a more pithy word to describe van Syrup’s tenure.
Great team performance. Never once looked fazed by bad the record at Old Toilet.
COYG. VCC
Not that it was too unexpected, but I thought the decision to change Bellerin with Chambers was very astute and very unusual from Wenger – we’re usually waiting until the 85th minute for our subs. That long ball diagonal from Di Maria to Fellani was clearly a tactic to disrupt the space between him and Kos and he dealt with that well all night, which then resulted in Young doing anything in his power to try and get him sent off being the diving thundercunt he is. If nothing else I’m just glad we played a degree of good football… Read more »
To be fair, the Europa League is too good for them. I think that lot would be better suited to a tournament they could actually make the semis in, like the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.
Coquelin was involved in 12 aerial duels with Fellaini, he won 10 of those. Outstanding display.
It was also very refreshing to see Ozil put himself about defensively, and what about the celebration from Welbeck?
Who’s to say we can’t win this again?
COYG
I can’t say I am normally enamored of the FA Cup per se…but to win successive cups would be a huge thrill.
The media will be jumping all over this result and then following up in the weeks to come with the idea Arsenal could not just repeat, but in turn then become the winningest side in the history of the competition (a position they jointly hold with Man U…).
The excitement and buzz this will start to generate is nothing but good for the club, players and fans alike.
I do think the media will conveniently leave this out or twist the narrative in such a way that belittles this win.
You can’t win anything with over paid footballers
I’ve not been this excited for a win since forever. Beating Ushited on their own turf, just amazing. Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ozil: Awesome. Welbeck scoring and celebrating like a Gooner: Awesome. Shit! I’m so excited.
10/10 to LVG for the swimming lessons. Di Maria wasn’t aware that in football we don’t slap referees. Can try that in swimming.
love Monreal’s encouragement for the second yellow.
http://arsenalist.com/f/2014-15/manchester-united-vs-arsenal/red-di-maria-slaps-referee-on-back.html
Hahahahaahahah Nacho Bobbleheadreal.
Ozil was fucking sumptuous tonight.
Imagine not being able to see how amazing he is? Poor half alive bastards.
Valencia MOTM, thanks to him we won
Nah man, thanks to Coquelin, Monreal, Ozil, Cazorla, AOC and every other Gooner on that field we won. But special thanks to Louis Van Cunt for being himself.
Great decision also by Arsene to take off Bellerin when he did – and well done Chambers for slotting in so seamlessly and keeping his discipline.
It’s time for Real Madrid to buy De Gea.
Hate to say it now, but with all these Gareth Bale stories I’ve got the worst feeling there could be scope for his return to the league in a De Gea exchange deal with Real Madrid. Let’s not sugarcoat it: this Man Utd team are going to spend astronomically big this year.
I’m not worried abt any amt of spending as long as Fellaini gets to start each match at Utd trying to soak up long balls aimed at him.. there are worse players in football and then, there is that fella
De Gea’s too good for OT, bet he can’t wait to get out of the place.
If they didn’t have him in goal they would be in the bottom half of the table,probably their only player who would get his place in our team
I’m just here for the Coq puns. Don’t think the win’s quite sank in yet.
Welbeck did seem an odd choice to me up front, but I did think before the game that Wenger put him there precisely to vindicate himself for the way they treated him. He had something to prove, gave him that extra bit of determination, and prove himself he did. This was what I had been waiting for ever since we signed him.
Welbeck celebration 10/10!!!
Monreal/Ox celebration 10/10 also!
Had to listen to the match on ArsenalPlayer while at work. Turned out to be a great monday!
10/10 for Wenger.
Ref was a man today when he did not award a pen on Janusaj dive after giving red to di maria. We know Howard Webb would..
I think also Ramsey deserves an extra point for that brilliant tackle in 88 min preventing United a turnover.
I have to admit I was surprised by the team selection but it tuned out well in hindsight. Congratulations to the referee. I am impressed by the fact that Bellerin stood his ground after an early yellow. Aerially we were good save for that goal.
De Gea is excellent – someone please save him for United as he ‘is not united quality’
Praise the Lord that Wellbeck is also not United quality
Karma is a bitch!
Amazing win and delicious to beat United! By and large a great team effort with so many of the players putting in a shift and hustling to defend. By no means am I ungrateful for the Welbeck goal, and I’m sure I’ll get slated for it, but I feel like it was another performance from him where a goal means a lot of his shortcomings were covered up. He only really started to work hard when Giroud started warming up. Before that he hardly pressed, and some of his touches were so heavy it looked like he had cinder blocks… Read more »
Fellaini for COTM: C*nt of the Match
And the Dunce of the Match goes to de Maria, who seems to believe he still plays for Real, SAF, or both.
Nacho’s goal – the whole move was pretty sexy. Def MOTM as his finish had them on the back foot all night.
Theo gets a 10/10 for passion – he was dying to get on. What do you guys make of his swift return to the bench after Rambo came on – didn’t look good for his Arsenal future.
Yeah I felt sorry for him and you’re right, it doesn’t look good 🙁
Tho hopefully this will inspire him to come back stronger!
the end of #18 curse..
I think Michael Oliver should get a bonus rating of 10/10 for having the guts to call simulation twice so late in such a big match (rightfully so). He didn’t just not call the foul as most refs would do, but actually stopped play and gave the cards, one of which of course led to Di Maria losing it. Of course that didn’t win us the match, but we all have seen those calls go for United so often at Old Trafford honestly I am shocked they went our way. Ozil really worked hard again, such a different player now… Read more »
Hahahahaahahah Nacho Bobbleheadreal.
It was 1-3 when Coq got taken off in that 8-2 game. While he was more box-to-box back then, it was a big error subbing him.
we shall never talk of that game again. We have a new game to talk about 🙂
The coq was out of this world tonight, he can have his doubters but he played out of his skin! Fair play to the boy, Gooner through and through
10/10 doesn’t do Danny justice between the Goal and celebration there just get the legend rating!!!!
Bonus 0/10 for Danny Murphy for slating Szczesny for the first 45 minutes and for slating Özil for the second 45 minutes. This included calling him a shadow of his former self even though in the Premier League alone he’s got 2 goals and 5 assists in his last 6 games.
Idiocy aside, a fantastic win and a great end to the Old Trafford curse. COYG!
Was that Danny Murphy? I was dying to know who so I could tweet BBC and say ban him from every commenting about us again. Let’s get him banned please people! 😀
I’m sure I’ll get thumbed down by the arseblog sheeple, but what was the point of replacing welbeck with giroud? He wasn’t fatigued, and welbeck is much better at harassing than giroud is. It’s like wenger just couldn’t resist putting in his French golden boy, no matter the pointlessness of it.
Giroud helps with making the ball stay in our possession and in the opponents half.
It was a great decision. Too often we make a defensive substitution and sit deep and still get robbed of a win. Putting giroud on allowed us to maintain the attack with a fresh pair of legs (i doubt anyone will fault Welbeck for being tired after the sheer amount he ran in this game) rather than let them have the ball, and also his hold up play relieves pressure at the back by keeping the ball high.
You’re just parroting what you’ve read before. Did giroud do that here? No. How much possession did we have when he came on? Not much. He didn’t do hardly anything to hold up the ball. It was a wasted substitution.
I agree that it didnt really pan out that way but Giroud is superior with holding it up and passing and as a manager thats what you base ur decision on… you cant see into the future like some ppl think they can after the fact
Did you see that stats before Welbeck was substituted? If you saw those please contact Arsenal team, I am pretty sure they would surely love to have you as a staff. Otherwise let the manager do the selection/substitution based on the strength and ability of the players and the stage of the game.
Well, I did see him win a few headers and he did set Sanchez up for a great chance to make it 3-1, does that count?
It was a wasted substitution, but if football was as predictable as you would like we wouldn’t bother with it.
I was happy to see Giroud come on because I thought he would be better at maintaining possession but we didn’t have any possession to maintain.
One of the reasons is that Szczeznzey makes shit clearances.
If Ospina was therre Giroud would have been a lot more effective.
Up The Arsenal!
Notwithstanding the fact that our goal came from a Szczeznzezy clearance
I think the main reasons were for him to be a target for long outlets (like goalie punts and goal kicks) and also to be able to defend corner kicks and free kicks that we would face. Would love to have seen Walcott come in for Ox to have a front line of Sanchez, Walcott and Welbeck to get behind Man U on the counter. I don’t think that threesome has played together yet.
good point also
Yeah, of course your not going to get thumbed down, you just called your fellow readers sheeple, what a good start.
If you are going to start your comment by insulting people, those people will thumb you down.
Just sayin’
Exactly. There’s merit to the question but if you ask it in a cunty way what can you expect?
Na-cho Monreaaal,
He looks like Crouchy
Nacho Monreeaaal
To the tune of macho man
Righto, I’ll pack my bags
How is Ramsey given a 6.5 or 7? He was awful as usual. He did nothing but give the ball away when he came on. Do you recall the nifty dribble show Özil put on late in the match only to play it to the young Welshman’s feet so he could do NOTHING with it? He has absolutely lost it. I defy somebody to tell me anything he brought to the table last season besides his goalscoring. Right, he scored a lot of much needed goals for us, but did not bring anything else to the team. He continues to… Read more »
He took a good yellow card that was one. He did not do a lot other than sitting back but still and outlet that keep one/couple of ManU players thinking or occupied.
I know it won’t get mentioned much but I think Ramsey deserves some praise. Felt he gave us a bit more steel in midfield and made things difficult for Di Maria and Rooney. It also freed up Cazorla to do more damage up top and keep the pressure on United. Ox was superb and I hope he isn’t out for too long though it looked like a bad one. Walcott has got a hell of a fight on his hands to get back into the team.
That tactical yellow
It was made even better by Young’s petulant reaction.
Nacho deserves an extra half point for his reaction to Januzaj’s dive.
The language is getting more creatively colourful by the article. I look forward to the next one.
LVG learning first hand that WKB. Schooled.
Arsenal can come up with a performance away to big team even after the opposition have equalised. Shout out to francis the amount of times he mopped up after Arsenal lost the ball why dont he just become a cleaner. Right place right time. And Arsenal attacking again. I think he might be my favourite Arsenal player at the moment. And well played to per aswell. If your going to say its wengers fault everytime Arsenal lose, why not say its wengers fault when Arsenal win away to a big team for a second consecutive time out of two attempts… Read more »
well said Gunner Pundit!…….i agree 100 % and couldnt think of anything more to add!
A few points:
1. Szczesny almost makes me nervous whenever he plays, and looked shaky today.
2. Welbeck touches need to be better; but his goal was not as easy as it seemed cos he had to flick the ball away from the onrushing de gea. Great job welbz!
3. Players seem pumped for the occasion and hopefully we see that in the Monaco game.
4. Wenger must get a cdm come summer to rotate with coq so they stay fresh. Wanyama and kondogbia shouldn’t cost more than 15 mil and I think they’ll be great additions.
COYG!
Good grief! I would think anyone could comprehend Danny Welbeck playing as the starting striker on his return to Old Trafford was inevitably under more pressure than any other individual on the park. The fact he created a chance and then took it through sheer willpower and athleticism was huge. He helped to get a Man U monkey off our back and has galvanized the club for the rest of the season. If Danny does little else for the rest of the season he has already returned his transfer fee with interest. This is one of those nights where you… Read more »
Nothing to add, just drinking in a quality all-round performance. Welbz’s workrate was sensation, as was Sanchez’s. We deserved every bit of that win tonight!
COYG!!
Ozil is the most unselfish player ever.he needs to be bit more selfish sometimes. For monreals he goal he had space and time but passed square to ox instead. It ended up being a good choice but I thought he should have kept going then shot. Also at the end . he needed to shoot
Well its a shame that there are no stats kept about the guy who actually started the play leading to a goal. The first pass to ox was laser guided and I don’t think anyone would disagree that he saw the space for ox to run into. As for the shot not taken at the end of the game, one must keep in mind that ozil is a bit shooting shy (and given all his other talents he is allowed to have a few faults) and not a proven clinical finisher, so chances were, I believe, that de gea being… Read more »
I think what stopped the goal there was 90% the keeper, szcz would have stood there feet rooted to the ground watching it go in
De gea is a fantastic keeper, yes, and I get you would think Szczesny isn’t capable of similarly great saves, but that’s not true. He has pulled of even better saves multiple times. He’s just a bit prone to mistakes and sometimes makes rash decisions (he’s growing) but he’s not a bad keeper.
Don’t think that’s fair on Szczney, De Gea is probably the best keeper in the league and top 5 in Europe. His stop for Cazorla was out of this world
Yea I got my words wrong there. What i mean is that shezzers is not de gea who is i agree the best gk in the epl this year… just tried to say that was the difference there and not the passing/movement
Even a look at youtube compilations of our goals from our last season show how important Ozil is starting that attack. Subtle genius he is.
Ozil and Alexis will strike a wonderful partnership in a short time. Both can learn from each other. Ozil should take a little selfishness out of Alexis, and Alexis should take a little unselfishness out of Ozil. After all, one was from Real Madrid and the other was from Barcelona.
I only recovered from the heart-ache of Monaco’s game after this win.
Voted 10s all round. That was a fantastic team performance, and I was fucking delighted to see it.
I don’t even care if people thought anyone performed below a 10, I thought everyone did their bit, and it was great to see.
Special mention to referee Michael Oliver!
Did not let the Old Trafford crowd influence his decisions. and so refreshing to see cheating punished properly!
I’m so fucking happy over this win that I’ve given everyone a 9 or 10.
Oh, and 10/10 to Piers Morgan for promising to sit himself on an electric chair and pull the switch if we lost. While I would have looked forward to this I’ll take a victory over ManU rather than the self-electrocution of Piers.
Piers Morgan is an entertainer (I use the term loosely), nevermind him.
Would a loss not have been greatly compensated by Morgan frying himself on The Chair though? While Arsenal can win other important games Morgan offering himself on a plate like that was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Sometimes the greater good takes precedence over personal satisfaction.
His narcissism would lead him to follow through with an unpowered chair as a media stunt for self adulation.